


Alone

by HanaHimus



Category: Persona 3, Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Half-Siblings, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Persona 5 Spoilers, Self Indulgence to the Max
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-25
Updated: 2017-05-25
Packaged: 2018-11-04 17:19:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10995429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HanaHimus/pseuds/HanaHimus
Summary: Goro Akechi had accepted that he was alone. The name Shinjiro Aragaki made him begin to question that.





	Alone

**Author's Note:**

> So I realized that I can easily use a semi-vague description to describe both of these guys? So here, AU where they're half-brothers through their mother.
> 
> A lot of stuff in this is vague and such, but hey? I thought it was okay, so I'm posting it!

Goro Akechi had accepted that he was alone. His mother had be shamed by him and was now gone, his father had seen him as nothing more than a tool… He was all alone. He was always going to be alone.

Laying in a hospital bed, acting like he didn’t remember who he was, just helped the fact settle in more. No one came looking for him, telling him who he was, and no one would. He was going to be a nameless boy in a bed for a long time.

All he had to pass the time was a laptop he’d talked a nurse into getting for him. It wasn’t much, but he was going to find something to do. Too bad he’d decided to use it for self loathing.

He wanted to know more about his mother, more about the woman who decided raising him alone was a burden. He wanted to know if such things could have been considered normal for her, or if he’d just ruined her life so much that she had to end it all. Goro felt deep down it would be the latter.

It was late in the day when he realized he was going down a rabbit hole. She’d been involved with another man when she was younger, during and right out of high school. He couldn’t find much on said man besides a last name. “Aragaki.”

Aragaki...Would that name come up in any future looking he did? Maybe, maybe not. He knew he’d end up keeping an eye out. If he no longer had his mother to learn from, maybe he could learn more about her from an ex-lover.

His eyes felt heavy, though… He needed to rest. He needed to rest, but there was so much more to learn. There had to be something else he could learn about her following this rabbit hole. He couldn’t stop now.

He looked up every Aragaki he could, tried to figure out who could be her ex lover. He couldn’t find that, but he found something even more interesting.

Shinjiro Aragaki. The picture he found...He looked at least a little like his mother, just like he did, only duller (the dull look in his eyes reminded him of his mother shortly before her death, he hated it). A man dulled by time… How pathetic.

He closed the laptop and laid against the pillows. Who was Shinjiro Aragaki and was he actually linked to Goro’s mother in anyway? Maybe he was imagining this link? Finding a way to link him to the faded memories of his mother?

Goro couldn’t say that wasn’t possible. He might be desperate, on some level, for a link to his mother. The only person he’d had for the first part of his young life. Despite the shame she held for even having him.

He closed his eyes, trying to forget it for the night. All that swam in his vision was images of his mother and that picture of Shinjiro.

\--

 

Goro wasn’t sure how he’d done it, but he got out of the hospital. Some people were just too easy to play. Say the right things and plenty of people are willing to risk everything to help you, Goro had learned this at a young age.

He’d also learned it was best to do it in a situation where you wouldn’t see them again for a long time. Better yet, if you never saw them again. It was less messy if he never saw them again.

He shook his head, sighing. He needed to look into his mother’s medical records. See if anything linked her to that Shinjiro fellow. It would be easier to do when not under constant surveillance.

The constant surveillance could prove to be an issue, even if the hospital had barely prodded about who he could possibly be. Maybe they just didn’t care enough to do anything until something odd happened. Like a teenager looking into medical records.

It hadn’t been too long, right? They would still be there, he just...had to find a way to get his hands on them. If he’d still been a detective it’d be easy, just a little lie about needing it for an investigation--

No wait. He was still a detective, as far as he knew. He’d heard he was missing, but not wanted for any crimes yet (had the Phantom Thieves not revealed him yet? Had his father said nothing after a change of heart about him?). That was laughable, he knew he would pay for what he’d done someday soon.

He needed to do this before then, before the facade all fell apart. He needed to find at least part of the truth.

\--

 

He’d found the medical records and couldn’t help but smile. Shinjiro Aragaki was her biological son. That alone wasn’t enough, no, not at all. But knowing that, he did more research.

Shinjiro had been put up for adoption. He was put to the side first, Goro wasn’t the first to be left behind. He was just...left behind in a more permanent manner.

Still, he wasn’t the only one left behind. Maybe he wasn’t the only one who was lonely too… Maybe Shinjiro had been alone all his life too. Maybe someone would understand.

Now he had to find out all he could about Shinjiro. He needed to learn everything, where he might find him. He needed to find Shinjiro, no matter what it took.

This would be the last time he did detective work. He would find Shinjiro and then finally turn himself in. That was about all he could do at this point. It’s all that would keep him from ending it all.

He would find Shinjiro. He would find Shinjiro, have a moment of happiness…

And then it would end.

\--

Tatsumi Port Island. This was his best bet to find Shinjiro, based of research. The last big thing he’d seen about Shinjiro in the news was a hospitalization due to a bullet wound. He’d gone off the radar after then, but…

Goro could hope he would find him somewhere around here. He had no other lead, so he had to take it.

All the pictures put him in a red pea coat and a beanie. That had to be a sign, maybe that’s all he wore? Maybe he could find him easier if he looked for that outfit…

Oh, who was he kidding? He was desperate to find anyone who could know his pain, even just a little. Someone who would understand why he’d done what he done, even if just to a small degree…

He started walking along, looking around the station. Was there anyone who looked like it could be him? He needed to find someone who looked even a little like him, or this would all be in vain. He couldn’t let this all be in vain, everything else had been in vain. He needed at least this.

He looked around, getting more desperate as the light faded. He needed to-- There. There, that had to be Shinjiro.

“Excuse me…!” He ran up to the man, grabbing him by the arm.

The man turned and his face was right, this had to be Shinjiro…! “What do you want, kid?”

“Are you Shinjiro Aragaki?”

He sighed, looking away and thinking for a moment. “Did Kirijo send you?”

Kirijo...Wasn’t that the name of some electronics group? He had no link to something like that…

“No?”

The man sighed. “Then yeah, I am. Who’re you.”

“I’m Goro Akechi, I--”

Shinjiro held a hand up and cut him off. “You’re that detective on television, huh? What’re you doing in slums like these? Especially when you’re missing.”

“You know a lot.”

“Storefronts tell you a lot.”

Goro frowned. So he really wasn’t wanted for anything yet. That, or Shinjiro didn’t know as much as he thought he did thanks to storefronts. He hoped it was the former, for now, at least.

“Well, that’s not all I am!” He smiled at him, trying to keep his heart from beating out of his chest.

“Oh?” Shinjiro rose an eyebrow, but Goro could tell he wasn’t interested in this.

“What would you do if I told you you had a half brother?”

Shinjiro seemed to think for a moment before shrugging. “I dunno. I never knew my parents, so I guess it’s possible.”

“Well, then, I hope you’ll believe me when I say I did some research and I believe I’m indeed your half brother.”

Shinjiro’s eyes widened for a second. “You can’t be serious, can you?”

“I’m completely serious.” He tried to keep smiling, but it was hard. “I...Never looked into it before. My mother died when I was young, so it was painful, but I finally looked into it and…”

Goro blinked a few times when Shinjiro gently placed a hand on his head. It was gentler than he was expecting based off Shinjiro’s look.

“Well, don’t expect much. I...won’t be around for long.” Shinjiro looked away, as if he didn’t want to say any more about that. “And I’m not the most...pleasant guy. But I guess you have me for now.”

Goro laughed, it was a sad laugh. “I see...Well. I should actually leave! I just wanted to meet you once!”

He’d planned on staying longer, asking more questions. He’d planned to learn if Shinjiro had really been as alone as he had been, like he hoped. But no. That would just hurt if that wasn’t the case. He would just be disappointed and feel this was a waste. It was better to pretend...

Shinjiro looked at him and frowned. Was that not the right thing to say, then? Maybe it wasn’t…

“See you around, then, kid…” He could hear that Shinjiro wasn’t exactly sure he trusted Goro.

“Maybe.” He did his best to seem anything but sad. “Maybe.”

**Author's Note:**

> As for P3 protag, while I'm sure most will think of this being set in a universe w/ FeMC... You can think that, a MaMC where Shinji somehow lived, a twin AU, whatever! I'm more inclined to go for MaMC or twin AU myself, but hey!
> 
> (I know that has nothing to do with this fic, but just. Leave it be. This is in case I write more for this AU and need to mention MC's gender or something ok)


End file.
